


No glove to cover it

by SecondStarOnTheLeft



Series: Good Intentions 2020 [5]
Category: The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27167176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/pseuds/SecondStarOnTheLeft
Summary: Before Murtagh's back has even healed, his mother makes a choice.The Black Hand, the Varden, and the changeable nature of the true self.
Series: Good Intentions 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978876
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15
Collections: Good Intentions: Abandoned and Unfinished WIPs





	No glove to cover it

**Author's Note:**

> Will I ever come back to this? who knows.

“Now, my love,” Selena said, stroking Murtagh’s hair back from his pale, scared face. “The letters are sent, and we are set - are you excited, my darling? To go on our adventure?”

“Do you promise you won’t leave me again?” Murtagh whispered, clutching tight to her arm. “Not ever, Mama?”

“I promise, little one,” she soothed him, kissing his brow and smiling, bright and lovely, even though her heart was seizing in her chest with terror. “I promise to never leave you again. How’s that?”

He nodded, and let go of her just long enough to shoulder his neat little pack. He was wrapped up all in shades of grey and dirty brown, and with a hood pulled over his black hair, he could have been any urchin child on the streets of Illirea. 

One more pauper for the streets of Uru’baen. Morzan would never think to look in the slums, and so long as Selena was careful and didn’t attract too much attention, they could hide there for the six months or so it would take for him to write them off as having run to the Varden.

As if the Black Hand could turn herself in to the Varden, especially not with Morzan’s own son at her side. She had protected one child, had given Eragon an escape she had not been able to give Murtagh, but she  _ would _ save him, take him away from the terror he had already grown so accustomed to.

“Now then,” she said, still bright and cheerful, still trying to keep the fear away from Murtagh’s always-shifting eyes. Was she doing the right thing? That terrible wound on his back still hadn’t healed, no more than the wounds given her by Morzan for her disappearance and for her rage at Murtagh’s pain had, and she was worried they all would turn septic.

But she had no choice. What would Morzan do when next he fell into a drunken rage? Would he turn Zar’roc on Murtagh with intent, rather than out of lazy malice? Would he turn it on  _ her,  _ and leave Murtagh without any guard?

No, he would not turn his blade on her. Morzan had many more intimate weapons he preferred to wield against her, and she was only ever grateful that he did not share in Enduriel’s more terrible perversions, so Murtagh was free of  _ that  _ fear.

“Now then,” she said again, tugging up his hood and tipping his nose with her knuckle, “let’s see what’s out in the wide world, shall we?”

* * *

She did not sleep that first night, warding herself and Murtagh against Morzan’s furious onslaught. He was stronger in magic than any living man save the King, and Selena was only relieved that Morzan’s vicious pride would not allow him to beg help in searching for his mistress and his bastard.

Perhaps, had he wed her, things might have been different. Murtagh would have his father’s name, she would not be shamed as a harlot, and they might have had some protections under what little law Galbatorix bothered to enforce.

She would not have had Brom. She would not have had Eragon. Would it have been worth it?

Murtagh cried out at some unknown horror in his sleep, and she gritted her jaw. No. Had she not known Brom, her name would have remained unchanged, and Morzan’s hold would keep her until the day she died. For Murtagh’s sake alone, it was best that they were whore and whoreson. 


End file.
